CONNAH’S Quay Nomads boss Jim Hackett says his side deserve great credit for bouncing back from their lowest ebb to take a massive step closer to survival.

Nomads, who head to mid-table Neath tomorrow (2.30pm) before entertaining title-challenging Rhyl on Boxing Day (2.30pm), beat fellow strugglers Llangefni at the Deeside Stadium on Saturday to leave them eight points clear of the drop spots and 12 from reaching the magical 30-point mark that Hackett believes will secure their safety.

The well-deserved 2-0 victory ended a run of five straight defeats and went some way to erasing the memories of the 8-0 beating by Carmarthen seven days earlier.

Hackett said: “It was a game we knew we had to get something from, and we talked about the fact that three points would open up a gap on Llangefni, who now need to win three games to get in front of us.

“So it’s testament to the lads’ character that they came back from the hammering by Carmarthen. I was brutally honest with some of them after that defeat, and I told them that for a club in the Welsh Premier League we had to improve our performances.

“But we made a couple of changes to the team and it worked well.”

Hackett’s decision to revert striker Chris Herbert to centre- back and utilise defender Adam Hitchen in the midfield holding role paid dividends as the Quay kept a clean sheet for the first time since early September.

Hackett said: “Those two have not been automatic choices in the positions they would prefer to play in but they’ve got into the team in perhaps what you would call foreign positions for them. But both played very well and it’s given us more options.”

Hackett has been busy adding to his squad with left-sided defender or midfielder Phil MacDiarmid and right-sided attacker Paul Wilcockson arriving at the club when the transfer window opens next month.

MacDiarmid had a short spell at Nomads last season and counts the likes of Runcorn, Leigh and Marine as former clubs having previously been on the books of Bristol City and Swindon, while ex-Chester City youngster Wilcockson is fit and raring to after a year out of the game with an ankle injury sustained while he was at Ashton.

Hackett – who, having taken over the Nomads hotseat in the summer had to build a whole new squad – said: “At the beginning of the season we were just looking at putting a squad together, now we’re looking to improve it.

“MacDiarmid’s been here before and he’ll be a good signing while Wilcockson’s very lively and quick and we’re hoping for good things for him.”

Hackett – who has also signed Wales Under 17s striker Michael Cronshaw – has been boosted further by joint-top- scorer Stewart White’s U-turn on his decision to quit the club. But fellow attacker Jamie Petrie has left.

Stuart Cook starts a three-match ban tomorrow having been harshly sent off against Llangefni while captain Gary Pinch, Chris Williams and Adam Dickinson remain sidelined.